There are a couple of interesting points when studying the government's proposed 2019 State Budget (that was unveiled by Indonesian President Joko Widodo on 16 August 2018). Firstly, and this is a usual phenomenon when legislative and presidential elections are around the corner, the proposed budget is characterized by a high degree of "populism". Secondly, the macroeconomic assumptions of the government seem much more realistic than usual.

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The emergence of a money flow in the context of the government's Family Hope Program (in Indonesian: Program Keluarga Harapan, or PKH), a cash transfer program for the nation's poorest households, is hoped to boost household consumption in Indonesia in 2018. In February 2018 the first phase of this year's PKH program will be conducted.

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According to the latest data from Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS), poverty in Indonesia has fallen to a historic low. BPS provides an update on the country’s poverty statistics twice per year, covering the state of poverty in the months of March and September. On 16 July 2018 the agency, which is a non-ministerial government institution, released the March 2018 data. And these data showed a welcome surprise.

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Traditionally the Indonesian government wants to raise spending on social assistance programs when legislative and presidential elections are around the corner in an attempt to become more popular, hence attract more votes. The government under the leadership of Joko Widodo also plans to use this strategy.

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